World/Nation
• President Obama spurns GOP on immigration
WASHINGTON - Spurning furious Republicans, President Barack Obama unveiled expansive executive actions on immigration Thursday night to spare nearly 5 million people in the U.S. illegally from deportation and refocus enforcement efforts on "felons, not families."
The moves, affecting mostly parents and young people, marked the most sweeping changes to the nation's fractured immigration laws in nearly three decades and set off a fierce fight with Republicans over the limits of presidential powers.
In a televised address to the nation, Obama defended the legality of his actions and challenged GOP lawmakers to focus their energy not on blocking his measures but on approving long-stalled legislation to take their place.
"To those members of Congress who question my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed, I have one answer: Pass a bill," Obama said, flexing his presidential powers just two weeks after his political standing was challenged in the midterm elections.
• Roofs creak, collapse as Buffalo snow hits 7 feet
BUFFALO, N.Y. - Roofs began to creak and collapse and homeowners struggled to clear waist-high drifts atop their houses Thursday as another storm brought the Buffalo area's three-day snowfall total to an epic 7 feet or more.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo begged drivers "pretty, pretty please" to stay off slippery, car-clogged roads in western New York while crews tried to dig out. Some areas got close to 3 feet of new snow by Thursday afternoon.
Things could quickly get worse: Rain and temperatures as high as 60 were forecast over the weekend, raising the specter of flooding and an even heavier load on roofs, where the snow could absorb the downpours like a blanket.
More than 50 people were evacuated from several mobile home parks in suburban Cheektowaga and West Seneca because roofs were buckling. Bellevue Fire Department Lt. Timothy Roma said more than a dozen buildings and carports collapsed, as did a metal warehouse operated by a Christmas decorations company, where damage was estimated in the millions.
• Documents, suit reveal journalist surveillance
LONDON - In January, freelance video journalist Jason Parkinson returned home from vacation to find a brown paper envelope in his mailbox. He opened it to find nine years of his life laid out in shocking detail.
Twelve pages of police intelligence logs noted which protests he covered, who he spoke to and what he wore - all the way down to the color of his boots. It was, he said, proof of something he'd long suspected: The police were watching him.
"Finally," he thought as he leafed through documents over a strong black coffee, "we've got them."
Parkinson's documents, obtained through a public records request, are the basis of a lawsuit being filed by the National Union of Journalists against London's Metropolitan Police and Britain's Home Office. The lawsuit, announced late Thursday, along with a recent series of revelations about the seizure of reporters' phone records, is pulling back the curtain on how British police have spent years tracking the movements of the country's news media.
• Senators get no clear answer on safety of air bags
WASHINGTON - There were apologies and long-winded explanations, but after nearly four hours of testimony about exploding air bags, senators never got a clear answer to the question most people have: whether or not their cars are safe.
A hearing Thursday before the Senate Commerce Committee featured an apology from the quality chief for Japan's Takata Corp., the maker of the air bags that can inflate with too much force, firing metal shrapnel into a car's passenger compartment.
A senior Honda executive also acknowledged his company didn't comply with disclosure laws.
• Shooting suspect thought he was government target
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Authorities don't know why Myron May targeted his alma mater Thursday when he opened fire on students at Florida State University's library, but they do know he thought the government was watching him and out to get him.
Or, as Tallahassee Police Chief Michael DeLeo said, his sense of being was not normal.
"Mr. May had a written journal and videos where he expressed fears of being targeted and that he wanted to bring attention to this issue of targeting," DeLeo said. "Mr. May was in a state of crisis."
Police killed May, a 2005 graduate who later earned a law degree from Texas Tech University, early Thursday. Officers had responded to a 12:30 a.m. call about shots being fired at the library, where about 450 students were studying. When police arrived, May had wounded two students and an employee and reloaded a .380 semi-automatic pistol.
He refused to put the gun down and they opened fire. More than 30 rounds were fired by May and the officers.
Police said May didn't get past the lobby, but the sound of gunfire set off screams among students, who scrambled for cover among the bookshelves and barricaded themselves in rooms.